Review Article
Ibrahim Abdullah Alshaye, Zaidatun Tasir, Nurul Farhana Jumaat
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 3, Article No: ep437
ABSTRACT
Social media, such as Twitter, have skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years. In fact, social media have been widely used by students and instructors as teaching and learning tools. In response to the increasing use of Twitter in the educational field, we have collected ten studies between 2011 to 2020 in order to assess the relationship between social media, specifically Twitter, and students’ engagement and grades. We have conducted a meta-analysis to provide empirical evidence concerning the impact of Twitter on student engagement and achievement. Furthermore, we have utilized the manual approach of content analysis in order to code these articles. Overall, metadata suggests that Twitter has a stronger impact on student engagement than on grades. Nevertheless, its impact is not necessarily positive, especially on grades.
Keywords: Twitter, social media, engagement in students learning, achievement, online learning, mobile learning
Research Article
Yiyun Fan, Kathlyn Elliott
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 3, Article No: ep373
ABSTRACT
Educators have increasingly turned to social media for their instructional, social, and emotional needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to see where support and professional development would be needed and how the educational community interacted online, we sought to use existing Twitter data to examine potential educators’ networking and discourse patterns. Specifically, this mixed-methods study explores how educators used Twitter as a platform to seek and share resources and support during the transition to remote teaching around the start of massive school closures due to the pandemic. Based on a public COVID-19 Twitter chatter database, tweets from late March to early April 2020 were searched using educational keywords and analyzed using social network analysis and thematic analysis. Social network analysis findings indicate that the support networks for educators on Twitter were sparse and consisted of mainly small, exclusive communities. The networks featured one-on-one interactions during the early pandemic, highlighting that there were few large conversations that most educators were part of but rather many small ones. Thematic analysis findings further suggest that both informational and nurturant support were relatively equally present on Twitter among educators, particularly pedagogical content knowledge and gratitude. This study adds to an understanding of the educational networks as a means of professional and personal support. Additionally, findings present the discourse featured in educator networks at the onset of an educational emergency (i.e., COVID-19) as decentralized as well as desiring pedagogical content knowledge and emotional sharing.
Keywords: data science applications in education, emergency online learning, Twitter, teacher professional development, social network analysis
Research Article
Osman Solmaz
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 9, Issue 3, pp. 315-330
ABSTRACT
The current study aims to present a critical analysis of research on social networking sites (SNSs) in second language teaching and learning (L2TL) context. Twenty-two studies published from 2011 to 2017 were included in the analysis through the selection criteria devised by the researcher. The descriptive analysis reveals that Facebook was the most commonly explored medium, and more than half of the studies featured English language learners in various levels. Following the content analysis of the studies, the emerging aspects of the literature review are treated under five overarching themes: practicing multiple language areas and literacies; authenticity and negotiation of meaning through interaction; development of intercultural competence and socio-pragmatic awareness; membership in L2 communities; and (re)construction of identities. Following an account of pedagogical considerations such as the dynamics of classroom, technical features, and various cultural uses of the SNSs, the study concludes with suggestions and directions for future research in regards to the incorporation of SNSs such as Facebook and Twitter into L2 classrooms.
Keywords: Social networking cites, Facebook, Twitter, Language teaching, Social media
Research Article
Heather M. Ross, Ryan Banow, Stan Yu
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 6, Issue 2, pp. 126-139
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this two-year quantitative study was to determine the usefulness of the micro-blogging tool Twitter in large classes for improving the students’ sense of community and belonging. Three instructors of large classes were recruited to test the outcomes of using Twitter as a learning tool, one each from the Departments of Geography and Psychology, and the College of Nursing. Twitter was used as a learning tool to allow students to engage in discussion and ask questions in real time during class as well as outside of class. The method used by the authors included surveys that measured students’ perception of their sense of community and belonging, their engagement with the Twitter portion of the course, and their thoughts on the use of Twitter for academic purposes in a higher-education classroom setting. Data about students’ use of Twitter was further collected using the Twitter Archiving Google Spreadsheet tool. The authors conclude this study showed that Twitter, if integrated into the course and supported by instructor and/or assistants who are familiar with the use of Twitter, improved the sense of community reported by students.
Keywords: Microblogging, Twitter, Learning technologies, Community, Large classes, Higher education